Category: Latest Updates

First Metro Weekly Equities and Economic Outlook – February 12 – 16, 2018 Outlook. We expect the market to trade within 8,500-8,700 amidst the lack of catalysts. Investors remain on the sidelines ahead of more full-year 2017 earnings this week and US gross domestic product (GDP) next week. Last week, Jollibee Food Corp. and Ayala Land released their FY2017 net... Read More

First Metro Weekly Fixed Income Summary and Outlook – February 12 – 16, 2018 Outlook. Interest rate pressures rising but the reserve requirement is acting like a sort of damper. Banks have not actually hiked their mortgage rate, although auto rates have inched up a bit. The Bureau of Treasury has been doing partial awards, also to temper the rate... Read More

First Metro Weekly Fixed Income Summary and Outlook – February 05 – 09, 2018 Outlook. Bond yields to remain elevated. The short-end rose, reflected in higher T-bill rates in the latest auction. Government had to reject to temper it. T-bill auction results: Average bid rates were 2.670%, 2.854%, and 3.04%, respectively, all higher than the previous auction’s average rates. Bid-to-cover... Read More

First Metro Weekly Equities and Economic Outlook – February 05 – 09, 2018 Outlook. We expect the market to stay volatile with PSEi likely to trade within the range of 8,300-8,700 amid lingering concerns about the outlook for interest rates, after BSP raised its inflation outlook for 2018 to 4.3% from 3.4% and Pres. Trump’s spending bill to raise US... Read More

First Metro Weekly Fixed Income Summary and Outlook – January 29 – February 02, 2018 Outlook. There’s continuing upward pressure on local bond yields this week due to higher-than-expected inflation of 4.0% in January, a big surprise given consensus expectation of 3.3% and the BSP likely doing a preemptive rate hike come Thursday. The sell-off in equities may not necessarily... Read More

First Metro Weekly Fixed Income Summary and Outlook – January 22 – 26, 2018 Outlook. Local bond yields rising. This due to higher US Treasuries touching a two year high of 2.72%. Locally, the short-end (T-bills) moved up. See below. The five year retraced 4.75% from a low of 4.6%. The rates will remain elevated. Given this view, government did... Read More

First Metro Weekly Equities and Economic Outlook – January 22 – 26, 2018 Market Outlook. We see 9,000 as the emerging support for PSEi if 4Q17 earnings don’t disappoint. So far, UBP has released its FY 2017 income up 30.4% y-o-y to P8.2bn, in line with consensus. Drivers. Strong 4Q17 earnings results to validate the strong market run-up. Market review.... Read More

First Metro Weekly Fixed Income Summary and Outlook – January 15 – 19, 2018 Outlook. Local bond yields will be rangebound this week. The Philippines’ 4Q17 GDP numbers came in at 6.6%, a tad lower than the 6.7% median expectation but still one of the fastest in the region.This brought 2017’s average growth to 6.7%, the third fastest growing pace... Read More